Hawaii Makes National News Again – For Sending ‘Aloha’ to Saddam

Not because the state got the worst or nearly the worst ranking in the business climate, government education, drug use, tax rates, poorly maintained roads, unbearable regulations, or the highest rate of property crime — all which the state has been credited with.

No, this time it was because the Democrats in the House of Representatives, with the exception of two, introduced a resolution to send “Aloha to Saddam.” The same Saddam who has been compared to Hilter, because he is a dictator credited with killing not 6 million Jews, but 1 million of his own people.

They did so under the guise of “promoting peace.”

House Democrats then took it a step further and promised to send certified copies of the Resolution to the President of the United States.

Imagine that — they had the nerve, the gall, the arrogance, in a time of war, to purport to the President of the United States that the people of Hawaii, including me, are opposed to him.

They had the incredible gall to represent that Hawaii, the state with a tremendous amount of military and dependents helping to keep the economy afloat, does not support the U.S. troops.

They had the self-importance, the ego, to say we in Hawaii do not like the way the President and the troops from Hawaii and other states are defending our freedom and destroying a dictator who is a major threat to me, my child, my family, and people throughout the country.

How humiliating. How despicable. How embarrassing. How utterly destructive. How dare they.

Let me just make one thing perfectly clear for the record. They don’t represent me, they don’t represent the majority view of the people of Hawaii or the nation.

House Republicans all adamantly opposed the Democrat resolution HR 164 that asked the U.S. Military to show “Aloha” or “love” to Saddam Hussein and spoke out against the resolution on the floor. Democrat Reps. Cindy Evans and Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo also voted no to the resolution.

“In order to give Aloha, it must be reciprocated, and I don’t think Saddam Hussein has aloha for us,” says Rep. Kika Bukoski, R-Maui.

HR 164 called the “penchant for making war” as “succumbing to the dark side of humanity” and one that does not strive to achieve the ideals of Aloha.

Rep. Bud Stonebraker, R-Hawaii Kai, called the resolution “shameful.”

“This kind of vitriolic speech makes Neville Chamberlain, the English Prime Minister who befriended Hitler during his rise to power, a courageous leader and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who stood up against Hitler, somebody who has succumbed to the darker side of humanity,” he says.

Republicans say the Democrats’ resolution labels King Kamehameha, who engaged in war to unite the Hawaiian people, President Abraham Lincoln, who engaged in war to free slaves, and all the Americans who fought England to create the United States of America, as having “succumbed to the darker side of humanity.”

Other House Republicans were shocked by the lack of respect Hawaii Democrat lawmakers showed for the American and allied troops putting their lives on the line for the freedom Americans all enjoy.

Rep. Cynthia Thielen, R-Kailua, who represents the windward district including the Kaneohe Marine Base, told the Speaker of the House she “deeply supports the military troops” and says “this resolution does exactly the opposite.”

But it wasn’t just the Democrats in the House who blatantly bashed the president of the United States and freedom loving people in Hawaii and around the world.

Yesterday the Democrats in the state Senate also passed a controversial set of resolutions. These asked the U.S. Congress to repeal the U.S.A. Patriot Act through SCR 18 and the Homeland Security Act through SR 8 under the resolution title of “reaffirming the state of Hawaii’s commitment to civil liberties and the bill of rights.”

Three of five Republicans in the Senate voted against the resolutions. House Minority Leader Fred Hemmings was absent from the floor and Sen. Gordon Trimble voted for the resolutions.

Sen. Sam Slom, R-Hawaii Kai, who voted against the resolution, says the nation has been at war since the terrorist attack of 9-11.

He maintains Hawaii legislators should strongly support the American troops risking their lives to maintain the freedoms all Americans enjoy and who are fighting to help prevent future attacks on this great nation and the President of the United States.

Slom and other Republicans in the state Legislature say, unfortunately Democrats in both Houses are instead speaking out against America’s leaders, including the President and the majority in Congress, and the brave soldiers on the front lines in Iraq and other hot terrorism spots around the world.

Hawaii voters should be outraged, embarrassed and humiliated by Democrats who voted for these resolutions and then boldly sent them on to the President of the United States as if everyone in the state supports their view.

Imagine how history will look upon these legislators and the people of Hawaii who voted them into office:

*When the full extent of the chemical and biological weapons Hussein possesses, some found as early as yesterday, are revealed to the world;

*When the facts are exposed that Hussein was indeed planning an attack on America, possibly even Pearl Harbor, with the help of other terrorists groups around the world;

*When the truth is revealed about the 1 million people Hussein murdered, tortured, raped, terrorized and ultimately destroyed with the help of his sons and his cabinet members.

*When the facts are uncovered that Hussein was no better than Hitler, who mercilessly murdered 6 million of the best and brightest Jews in Germany and throughout Europe in the early 1900s and ruined the lives of millions more.

And the sad part is how few Democrats in the House and Senate who voted against the president, the troops, and the people of America, will understand they are condemning the freedom, safety and basic rights of all Americans, including the very people of Hawaii they represent.

Rep. Guy Ontai, R-Millilani, a former Army Major and West Point graduate, said it best yesterday: “You cannot say peace and not be willing to fight for it.”

Hawaii Reporter is an award-winning, independent Hawaii-based news and opinion journal founded in 2001 and launched in February 2002. The journal's staff have won a number of top awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, including the top investigative news reporting awards, business reporting awards, government reporting awards, and online news reporting awards.